Social media changing the world

Sarah Spuz ‘17 – Growing up in the technology generation influences children differently than back in the early 2000’s. Even though it seems like it all happened quickly, we were surrounded with different things growing up, like Barbie dolls and toy race cars. Nowadays, kids are surrounded with technology.

Commonly, young kids today own a tablet and know how to use it.

According to CNN.com, at age 5, more than 50% of children regularly interact with a computer or tablet device, and by 7 or 8, many kids regularly play video games.

Every person is brought up in a different lifestyle but, technology had little relevance where I grew up. I played outside from dawn to dusk and rarely touched technology, but nowadays that concept stands on its head. Kids spend limited time outside, instead hiding away in their houses consumed by their devices.

“I think that people mostly talk on social media” Yoselin Martinez ‘18 said. “I feel like kids are going to grow up being antisocial”

In the nineties, parents worried about where their kids went in the neighborhood. Now, they have to worry what their kids look up online. These technological advances have benefits on the lives of those who utilize them, but drawbacks are hard to ignore.

According to parental control apps.com, the internet interferes with socializing, isolation, etc. in the future.The involvement of technology in children’s lives affects their social skills, making texting and calling not only more accessible, but easier than face-to-face conversation.

Already you can see traditional friendships become replaced by social media relationships.Today you hear your phone go off with a Twitter notification. Curiously, you open it and realize for the past six months that person has been following you, and they happen to go to your school. You know their likes and dislikes, but the funny thing is, you’ve never actually spoken to them. Welcome to today’s world of social media: people message you online but never talk to you in person.

Developing an authentic personal relationship with another person involves face-to-face communication, and while social media connects people on a new and more widespread level, it diminishes people ability to truly connect.

“I feel like it’s not natural to develop a relationship with a person based on only talking online,” an anonymous student said.